The dramatic increase in support for Black Lives Matter across the nation is accompanied by nearly universal support for serious criminal justice reform. That includes overwhelming support for "clear standards on when police officers may use force and consequences for officers who do so excessively."
A new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research also finds strong support for penalizing race-biased policing, that Americans are more likely now than they were five years ago to say police violence is a very serious problem and to say that police who commit violence or murder are treated too leniently. It finds massive support for policing reform: 94% of respondent say the criminal justice system needs to be changed, with 40% supporting "major changes" and 29% saying it needs to be completely overhauled. "For me, as a Black person, I'm like, this has been happening," Kevin Richardson, 38, of Charlotte, North Carolina told AP in the survey. "We should've been knowing it, we should've been seeing this and so now what's happened is, I'll be honest, white people are seeing it and saying, 'This is wrong.'"
That's absolutely what has happened. Civiqs tracking of Black Lives Matter support since 2017 showed support among whites at 34% when Breonna Taylor was shot in her own bed by police serving a no-knock warrant for a suspect that wasn't even in her home. It started rising with the release of COVID-19 data by race to a high of 44%—among white people—immediately following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. It's now at 43%, and support overall for BLM is 52%.
In that AP survey, a white woman explained it. Megan Pecknold is 33 and lives in Spokane, Washington. "I had never really given much thought to police use of force. I'm white. I've never had a bad encounter with a police officer," she said. "The last few months have brought to light more of this for me, and now I am educating myself." About one quarter of whites say that the policing system needs a complete overhaul, and another 40% say major changes must be made. Even 30% of whites think that at least minor changes should happen.
The largest discrepancy is, of course, in political parties. A decent 44% of Democrats want to see a complete overhaul of the system, to just 12% of Republicans. But 34% of Republicans are calling for major changes, which is exactly not what their party leadership is delivering.
Senate Democrats needs to hold firm in opposing the toothless bill from Republicans, which could do more harm than good. If they pass that, they can point to it and say they acted and refuse to do more. But the bill does none of the things the public is overwhelmingly calling for. Huge majorities—nearly 90%—want body cameras mandated and cops to be accountable to one another. They want cops to be required to report misconduct by their fellow officers. Eighty-six percent want standards established for the use of force, and 84% want cops who use excessive force to be prosecuted. Everything the Democrats want to do in their bill has massive support from the public, so they have every reason to rebuff McConnell and fight for what's right.